Page 33 of The Christmas Express

Joss and Joe shuffle in unison, and Joss says, ‘My memory is that Christmas party of Luke’s work that we all crashed and they ended up offering Sara Luke’s job.’

We all laugh and Sara holds her hands up. ‘To this day, I still say they weren’t serious.’

‘Oh, they were.’ Luke grins. ‘What’s yours, Sara?’

She thinks for a minute. ‘A happy Christmas memory was the first year I moved in, and we all went carol singing to the building next door, and that old couple gave us stollen.’

‘That was nice,’ the rest of them all agree. That was before Bryn and I got together.

‘Luke?’

He looks at Cali for a moment, a smile twitching his lips, and she holds his gaze in that way they always did, like there was no one else in the whole world.

‘I’m going to say, that Christmas at Bryn’s country mansion.

That whole Christmas. With the snow machine, and the games and the m-mistletoe and stuff. ’

‘That was awesome,’ Joe agrees, painting over Cali’s surprised look with his words.

‘And you?’ I say to Cali. ‘What’s a Christmas memory that makes you smile?’

‘All of them. And also this,’ she says, which is a bit of a cop out, but we let it slide because it’s Cali.

Alex slides out from under me. ‘You guys, we better head back to the bus if we want to grab a bite of breakfast in Jasper before we board the train again?’

Reluctant but grateful, we follow her towards the trail steps that lead back down to the valley path. ‘Thank you for this,’ I say to her. ‘You didn’t have to be tour guide today.’

‘I wanted to.’ She smiles, those honey lips.

Ahead of us, Luke skids on a patch of ice at the top of the first step, grabbing the railing to steady himself. Behind him, Joss shrieks and grabs the back of his coat, steadying herself more than him.

‘I knew I was going to break my head in half on this trip!’ she cries, not at all over-dramatically. Coming up behind Joss is Cali, whose feet also slide out, one to each side, like she’s in a cartoon.

Luke whirls around as best he can with Joss clinging onto his back, and reaches his hand back to take Cali’s. Joss drops her hold, her smile from moments before fading.

When Joe collides into the back of Cali and the four of them nearly domino themselves, a snort escapes me before I can help it. ‘What?’ I hiss to Alex, who tilts her head at me. ‘It’s like watching an old slapstick movie play out in front of me.’

She chuckles, then takes charge, which is kinda hot. ‘Alright, let’s all walk sideways down the steps, hold onto the person in front of you, and if you feel yourself slipping on the ice just take a pause. We’re not in... that much of a rush.’

The group shoot wide-eyed glances at each other, like Alex has just asked them to all form a massage circle or something.

I sigh and walk to the front. ‘You’re the people who used to drape yourselves over each other like you were a pile of blankets.

I know you have some beef but come on, you can have physical contact with each other.

’ I take Luke’s hand with my right, holding onto the railing with my left.

Behind me, he lets go of Cali and takes Joss’s hand, who is still standing in between the two of them.

She blinks rapidly, her face set in a line.

Cali finds Joss’s hand and holds it tight, and grabs Joe’s with her other, who takes Sara’s hand, who holds onto Alex, who really doesn’t look like she needs help from a bunch of Brits getting down a few icy wooden steps at all, but is playing along so we don’t feel completely useless.

We begin a shuffling descent which I imagine resembles a drunk slowworm. Halfway down, Cali starts giggling.

‘Stop it, Cali,’ Luke admonishes, but he can’t get the words out without laughing along with her.

‘It’s just funny, you know? Us helping each other, like we’re on a team building exercise.’

‘Maybe that’s all we needed, this whole time,’ pipes up Sara from near the back.

This makes Cali laugh even more. ‘Can you imagine? If five years ago we’d just talked everything out over a day of segwaying in a rainy forest?’

‘I don’t think that would have helped,’ says Joss.

‘Well, no,’ Cali says between snickers. ‘You wouldn’t have made it past the first bend without falling off.’

‘Oi!’ Joss shrieks, a smile playing on her lips.

Cali is sliding all over the place now, blinking back tears of laughter.

‘Just a couple more steps, Cali,’ I call back. ‘Hold it together!’

‘I’m going to pee myself!’

And thank God we’re back on flat ground because this sends everyone into giggles and now we’re level again we remember that we’re all still mad at each other and pull ourselves together.

There’s a lightness though that wasn’t there before, as we trudge our way back to the bus. A camaraderie, perhaps.

Once Alex has dropped us all off outside the hotel, returning the shuttle bus, I check the time. We have about thirty minutes before we need to head back to the station.

‘Does anyone want to stop for some brekkie?’ I say, spotting an open diner with huge windows offering views out across the valley. All seven of us bundle inside the toasty warmth, hanging a few of our layers on a coat rack beside a large Christmas tree bedecked in red baubles and ribbons.

As we sit down to a tableful of pancakes and waffles and so much syrup we’ll almost certainly spend the rest of Christmas Day on a sugar high, it’s, actually, like old times. In a way. There’s a comfort in that, but the best part is sitting side by side with Alex.

Too soon it’s time to board the train again, and although the others are talking about taking warm showers and calling their families once we’re back on board, I plan to head straight up to the celestial carriage again. I don’t want to miss a single second of this scenery.

And if anyone wants to join me, that would be okay too.